European Union

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The European Union is the economic and political partnership of 27 European countries governed by three different representative bodies: the European Parliament (EP), the Council of the European Union (CEU) and the European Commission (EC). Most share a common currency, the euro, for which the European Central Bank administers monetary policy.

Common interest

The European Union's 495 million citizens vote directly for the EP while their national governments elect the CEU and the EC, which functions as the EU executive branch, is appointed by the EU every five years and represents "the common EU interest".^[1] The EU began in 1957 as the European Economic Community (EEC), a regional economic co-operation agreement between its original six founding states of Belgium, Netherlands, France, Italy, Luxembourg and West Germany.^[2] Fifteen of the current 27 EU members have so far adopted the euro as their currency.

Easing up

The European Union could act shortly to pass a budget stimulus proposed by the EC that would allow EU states to run budget deficits of more than three percent for longer periods to encourage expansionary growth.^[3] The proposal is aimed at EU member states like France, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Hungary and Britain that are currently running budget deficits of around that size.